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A resuable grocery bag was traced to an outbreak of norovirus that sickened members of a girls' soccer team in Oregon.
Oregon public health officials have traced a nasty outbreak of norovirus infections in a group of soccer players to an unlikely source: a reusable grocery bag contaminated with what some experts are calling “the perfect pathogens.”
The incident is raising questions, once again, about the cleanliness of the portable shopping bags that many consumers use to avoid the paper vs. plastic impact on the environment.
“We wash our clothes when they’re dirty; we should wash our bags, too,” said Kimberly K. Repp, an epidemiologist with the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services in Hillsboro, Ore. Her work is published this week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Repp was an intern with the Oregon Health and Science University in October 2010 when she and other experts were asked to help unravel the mystery of sick soccer players and their chaperones. They had traveled north from Beaverton and Tigard, Ore., to Washington state on a Friday for a weekend tournament.
Less than 48 hours later, nine people were ill with unpleasant symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea. The question was: How did they get it?
One of the soccer players -- all 13- and 14-year-old girls -- had fallen ill on Saturday night and moved into the room of one of the parent chaperones. The pair went home early Sunday, with no further contact with other players.
Even so, seven other people became ill within days, stumping scientists momentarily.
CDC
Noroviruses are a group of viruses responsible for some 21 million cases of gastrointestinal illness a year, including 70,000 hospitalizations and 800 deaths.
“It involved really thinking outside the bag, so to speak,” Repp said.
Eventually, interviews revealed that most of those who became ill ate packaged cookies at a Sunday lunch. Where did the cookies come from? Turns out, the culprit was a reusable grocery bag of snacks left in the empty hotel room occupied by the first girl who got sick.
Quickly, the puzzle fell into place. The girl had been very ill in the hotel bathroom, spreading an aerosol of norovirus that landed everywhere, including on the reusable grocery bag hanging in the room.
When scientists checked the bag, it tested positive for the bug, even two weeks later.
“It was a knock out of the park,” said Repp. “We demonstrated norovirus transmission without person-to-person contact. That’s why this is different.”
The trouble with noroviruses -- which cause an estimated 21 million cases of gastroenteritis a year, some 70,000 hospitalizations and 800 deaths -- is that they’re tough bugs that can live for prolonged periods on objects and surfaces, said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
“Norovirus does have the vexing capacity to persist in the environment,” he said.
While the risk of contracting an illness from any particular reusable bag is low, Schaffner said, the Oregon study follows a 2010 paper by researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University that found large numbers of bacteria in reusable grocery bags, including 12 percent that were contaminated with E. coli.
When scientists stored the bags in the trunks of cars for two hours, the number of bacteria jumped 10-fold.
Some critics dismissed that study, which was funded in part by the American Chemistry Council, which supports the makers of some disposable plastic bags.
But few have debated the study’s conclusion, which found that washing the reusable shopping bags regularly decreased contamination by 99.9 percent.
“You could just wipe it down with Lysol or Clorox,” said Repp.
Schaffner agrees. The most important tool to prevent norovirus, which spreads rapidly and infects quickly, is good hygiene, including careful hand-washing and thorough cleaning of the contaminated environment.
“You could wash the bag,” Schaffner said. “Or you could start over with a new bag."
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Leave a Comment:
I took my own study. It turned out humans spread more germs then anything else. In final conclusion, we should get rid of all humans. That would solve many of the human's problems. Even that little bag problem.
you start first please and we'll get back to you and let you know if it works.
You couldn''t be more correct. George Carlin even used this in one of his acts-he said-enviormentalist worry about plant earth going away-well, earth has survived for millions of years, its always changing but never goes away-people might, but not the planet. We are our own worst enemy. Human's kill for sport, for power/money and control. We all fight a lot but we aren't very good at it are we. Unless of course, the plan is really no plan at all-then we are the greatest!!
So the solution to the contaminated reusable bag is to throw it out and but a new one. That's a bit confusing since the whole rationale of buying the reusable bag in the first place was to cut down on the throw away bags to begin with. Here's my solution, stop using reusable bacteria infested bags and use the cheap and non-infested throw away bags.
How about making reusable bags that could be tossed into the microwave for a minute to kill any germs? I do that with sponges. I will bet that a bag may not look dirty, but could be harboring bacteria. I have heavy duty canvas bags that I have to air dry-a process that takes days.
You need a better understanding of bacteria. It doesn't just go away. Some bacteria can actually grow in the microwave.
I use my plastic bags for my small trash containers. When filled up, I wrap it up and throw them away. I never re-use them for food products afterwards.
So if you need to wash your bags and you should regardless of using cans or whatever in the reusable bags because germs travel everywhere on everything. No wonder Howard Hughes became a hermit and was constantly washing his hands?! lol.....Plus if you need to wash these reusable bags, then you have the soap and water adding up. Is there really anything totally green and was there ever? Doubt it...People exist therefore they consume_that's life. Sometimes it makes me think; excuse me for living; but then I go turn off the computer, tv, radio etc and go garden...nature consumes, too, but it seems "just about" everything they throw or give off gives nourishment to something else in nature. Enough said...
Like Kermit the frog said,"Its not easy being green".
I work in a grocery store, and I do use reusable bags for my shopping. They are a pain for the bagger or cashier to efficiently bag your groceries, and It takes twice as long to bag your order. I often see smelly, gross, pet hair covered useable bags. Please, please wash your reusable bags. I try to never put meat in these bags, but customers ask me to anyway.
I agree. Don't forget, too, that they mess up the cashier's items per minute count.
I'd say only air dry your bags after washing them (as another person said) because I put them in the dryer once and the bag melted to my clothes! It might work to do no heat on your dryer if you have that option, but my dryer doesn't give that option from what I can tell.
oh my god abc... you're wasting precious natural resources drying a grocery bag? don't you feel very un -earth friendly?
LOL, you people are cracking me up.
Bag Directions-Wash it once a week and shave it once a month.
Hey, if you like reusable bags and want to devote the time and energy to caring for them. But don't be arrogant enough to assume everyone can or wants to do that and pass laws banning plastic bags
I used to cashier, and I did not like packing reusable bags. They were often dirty, covered in animal hair and who knows what. I'm sure that there have been store personnel get sick from them, but the stores aren't going to do any research to find that out, especially if it was the chain I'd worked for.
Furthermore, cashiers are clocked on an items per minute, and are expected to meet and then exceed certain counts. Store management doesn't care if the cashier is using standardized new bags or some random sized floppy pieces of crap (some with shrunken necks, some that only would hold two or three items) that the customer brought in.
Yuck, that's disgusting, and I would definitely speak up and decline to use their dingy, foul bags. I've told cashiers to clean the belts and the glass they drag food over many times before I put my food on them.
I recycle my used toilet paper. I throw it into the washer, and then eeeeW!
Some of us reuse "disposable" plastic bags.
The plastic bags I use to carry dry-goods groceries home with, I can reuse as small trash bags, as utility bags to hold items for do-it-yourself projects or housework, etc.
Any bags that have carried fresh meats or produce, I discard. I'm on immunosuppressants for a kidney transplant, leaving me more susceptible to infections. I can't afford exposure to germs.
you could just wipe it down with lysol or clorox? oh .. ok. you could wash the bag? let me ask you this... would you wipe down a bag with bleach or lysol which is a harsh chemical and put your groceries in it? we used paper bags when i was a kid and they worked just fine thank you. they are biodegradeable, disposable and cheap.i laugh at you liberal wackos who think they are saving the earth by using a disease ridden cloth bag.you feel real good about yourself while putting your stupid reusable bags into your 10 mpg gas guzzling suv's.
TheRealChris
"You mean the oil companies that get billions of dollars in taxpayer money, or the companies that don't pay taxes but get tax refunds?"
Oil companies do NOT get taxpayer dollars-they get tax credits-they do not get any direct payments.
Oil companies pay a lot of taxes-you just listen to only the part of the story that fits your views-NOT the entire story,OR the truth.
Oil companies pay billions in payroll taxes,Social security and medicare taxes,plus state and local payroll taxes,along with sales taxes on every gallon of product sold-not paying any federal corporate tax does NOT mean they do not pay taxes-
How many other companies get similar tax credits from the Feds? How many get direct loans and subsidies from the feds?-which the oil companies do NIOT get.
end of reusable garbage bags.
who do you people think manufacture reusable grocery bags and what are they made of? how much energy is wasted mfg. a greenie weenie bag versus a good old biodegradeable paper one?the greenie weenie bags serve 2 purposes.... make liberals who drive 10mpg suvs to the grocery store feel good about themselves and the people who have them mfg in china rich.
Common sense says to throw out food that might have been contaminated by someone who was sick and take time to launder/clean anything exposed to that person.
Well, some genius finally figured out the obvious!!. We changed from paper to plastic to save trees but then the same idiots realized that plastic doen't break down but you can grow more trees. Then the real smart ones said lets use cloth bags. I wondered how long it would take before people got sick or died from the germs growing in those bags. If you know anything about bacteria then you also know it is near impossible to get rid of certain types. Factor in that people are also handling money which carries more germs than we know and wha la those stupid bags are far worse than paper or plastic. Of course, the idiots in CA have now passed laws in some areas that you must bring your own bags and they can't be plastic. When is the first lawsuit going to be when the same idiot that thought it was an fabulous law sues for illness or even death?
God people are brilliant aren't they? I still want to pass a law that you can't be stupid. I know quite a few that could be charged. It could help pay off the national debt.
Anything pourous in that room would have been infected with the Norovirus, anf if anyone, or any food came in contact with it, it was over. The news here isn't the bag, it's the airborne infection capability. More reason why sick students and sick employees should stay home if it's not merely a matter of washing your hands after touching a doorknob.
See hippies? Deadly viruses are organic too. Not all things organic are good for you...oh never mind...it's like trying to explain to some poor toothless redneck that Obamacare is actually a good thing for them. Why should Americans use their brains, when they can rely on their ideology? Why think for yourself when you have people like Grover Nordquist or Steve Jobs to do your thinking for you?
I mean really, throw the things in the wash once a week. Would you leave your sheets on the bed for a year?
reference this item (Reusable grocery bag carried nasty norovirus, scientists say)
maybe people should be warnned to disinfect there reusable shopping bags before they reuse them next time so that there will be less likelyhood of them carrying any king of harfull buggs so that there will be less likelyhood that harfull buggs will be transfered to any of your new food shopping items when you next shop for food
Of course, tree huggers never think to WASH these reusable grocery bags, since they thought just buying and using one was enough to save the planet. Those bags, by the way, are made in China or India -- two of the most filthy places in the world! You never hear of illnesses from either country because the figures are just too appalling to publish. Who knows what sort of diseases are being imported in those cheap goods the US public so much demands.
Wash the bag. Problem solved. The Paper and Plastic bag trade groups can put away their lobbyists. I have no idea why disposable bags are still even in use. The reusable bag could be something Americans can make too. Won't matter how much they cost, it would be the law you can't get paper or plastic.